Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ... Or so I kept telling myself for the last 2-3 years.

It had been ages since I had the urge to paint one of my Salamanders, I had dabbled with the Imperial Guard, done some nice work with Battlefleet Gothic and generally mucked about without actually painting anything even vaguely Space Marine orientated.

New toys kept arriving and going into the "Space Marine" box, money spent on a pile of plastic that was getting bigger and bigger. It is disconcerting to be the owner of one of the biggest Space Marine websites in the world and not have the urge to play or paint Space Marines. You feel in some strange way disloyal, a bit of a failure, almost like living a lie. I have always liked Space Marines, loved my Salamander Marines, I created the best space marine painter program on the web ... hell my namesake even got a place in the Salamander books by Black Library. But I could not stir any interest in picking up and painting a Space Marine, "Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ..." kept going around in my head.

Maybe that is the problem, perhaps I am too hooked up "Painting Green", being THE "Salamander" player. So I am going to try and paint some other Space Marines and try not to feel oddly guilty and importantly I am not going to try and make them "works of art". The nearest I ever got to the Demons was making the cut in 2003 at Baltimore, its time to put that dream away and just enjoy painting some stuff to whatever standard takes my fancy.

So I started thinking about what I would like to paint that wasn't a "Salamander", I decided I like old Chapters as they have cool looking old armour etc.

So a founding chapter perhaps? ...

Well to cut a lot of self analysis waffling short, I decided this week to try and paint an Iron Hand Space Marine.

Here is the work in progress ... still need to work on the purity seal and I am not happy with the bolter casing either ... but its a start and my first Space Marine in over 2 yrs. I am waiting for Forgeworld to deliver the Decals for the shoulderpads!



I used a metal bolter (because of the bionics) and the surface is uneven and the white casing sure as hell shows it! not happy with that ... next one will be a Plastic bolter and should be better.



I am using the "chipped" weathering look because normally I paint "pristine" space marines and I wanted a change! (its also VERY quick)



Its taken me 2 hrs painting to get this far and that's about the fastest I have ever painted any marine, so I am quite pleased by that



I need to decide on some kind of basing theme next, I am tempted to go for steel plate with significant rust and oil ... but I will test that later.

Overall I am pleased with the result, its fast and a little dirty ... but its a space marine in under 3 hrs and that is unheard of for me.

Excellent!

I like where the paint job is going. Nice and clean. Keep it up!

Thanks guys

Well today I have been busy at home but tried to allot an hour to painting / modelling.

First up is the test base for the Iron Hand Marine, I decided in the end to go for a "mechanical/industrial" flooring. With the monochrome of the Iron Hand colours I wanted to add some colour to the base to act as a "frame", so I decided to use an iron base with rust and stains.

First I searched for some old buried plasticard "tread-plate", which when I found I cut in a 22mm diameter circle, to fit the top of a standard 25mm base. Gluing this to the plastic base I then under-coated it black and topped it with a layer of dark brown. I then switched to Tamiya smoke to add some stains, which I left to "almost" dry and then switched to using "MiG" pigments/powders to create three layers of rust, each lighter and smaller than the previous one. The almost dry Tamiya smoke created a nice stain texture and I concentrated the darker rust there. Once finished I had a VERY rusty treadplate with no hint of iron showing anywhere, so it was time to use a very light drybrush of Boltgun metal on the areas not covered by the "stain". I did this very lightly and built it up slowly till I had the correct density of iron showing.

Overall I am very pleased with the result: -



Once the base was complete I switched to working on a Company Pad ... The three hex bolts insignia appealed the most to me and I wanted to make a pad that I could cast in resin.
To start with I grabbed a "tech-marine" shoulderpad from the vehicle sprues and filed the skull from it. This left a nice cog and I had some photo-etch hex bolts from my work on the Imperial guard tanks, using a small pin I made a minor hole in the centre of the cog. I then carefully added each hex bolt to the shoulder pad based around the pin hole evenly, I used very thin super glue to make sure no marks would be visible and the hex bolts would be flush to the surface of the pad.

You can see the final result here: -



I am pleased with how things are coming on and have a number of ideas for further bases and an urge to try and improve on the sculpting of the "Iron Hand" on the Iron Hand shoulder pad found in the IH Space Marine squad box. I am also waiting for the Space Marine Character Conversion set from Forgeworld for the bionics, and some of the older Heresy armour too.

At some point I also need to work on Bionic conversions too

And more importantly I need to paint more Marines!

It looks great! My only suggestion is not directed at your mini, but instead your presentation - I'd edit your post and change the subject to make it clear what your post is about.

The shoulder pad with the photoetch on it is absolutely terrific.

Nice job. It's great that you have vision and the ability to carry it through. Both the base and the insignia are superiour quality work. Love it.

I have been working for up in London at the British Museum for the last 3 days and didn't have time to paint AND post about it. The good news is I have finished at the museum till monday and had the time tonight to take some pictures!

In my never ending search for decent pads / decals can I present the following: -



On the left is the Ravenwing Techmarine pad with the hooded skull removed and smoothed down in anticipation of more hex bolts! ... However the quality of the Forgeworld Decals evident on the rightmost shoulderpad may well have swayed me away from making/casting my own pads for the moment.

The middle pad is the metal Gw iron hands shoulderpad in the box set, personally I think it looks way to "chunky" to be used, while next to it lies the Forgeworld decal pad which I am very pleased with!

With regard to the Decals, they take some significant time to deform to the curve of the shoulder pad. I use Microscale Industries "Micro Sol" to soften and deform decals and normally its fairly easy work, but for the FW decals I had to leave the decal on the pad and soaked in "Micro Sol" on top of it for a few minutes before it would start to deform sufficiently. Having said that the FW Decal sheet has a lot of excellent decals just right for the Iron Hands and I would definately recommend it to anyone with experience in using Decals. Beginners might find them a little annoying!

In addition to preparing and painting pads, I have begun work on the second base, I wanted something a bit more complex this time and used some of the small scale photo-etched eagles from Forgeworld to create the following look: -



I was looking to create the feeling of a recessed track on my "Tech" flooring, and the eagle "embossed" rail next to it worked for me!

Up next is the first space marine I worked on with finished pads! ... from this angle a couple of interesting things are visible, firstly the company shoulderpad from the FW IH decal set, which I loved the look of! ... and in addition some my old stock of bolter shells, the shells I use are no longer available and I was lucky to buy a stock of them. They are made of aluminum tube on a microscale lathe and are actually hollow! I use them sparingly and only have about 40 or so left, but they do look good on Marine bases! Annoyingly the "metallic highlights" on the treadplate don't show from this angle in either picture so they look overly "rusty" .. however if you look at my previous post you can see what it looks like!



The next picture shows the other shoulder pad and the iron hands tactical designation on the lower leg armour (as per the IA : IH) ... I think personally its a little too large, but thats the size supplied on the FW Decal sheet for the leg. In tomorrows post you should be able to see my next marine and he has a different insignia on the leg which I think I prefer.



You should also be able to see the "bronze" purity seal ... its possible to use was as a carrier for metal filings and I thought this colour would look good for my purity seals. Sometime at the weekend I will be doing the Decals for the text on the purity seals!

More pictures tomorrow of the second painted space marine ...

nice work so far very Nice in fact. I'm glad your getting back into your army, its always such a shame to have loads of plastic lying around.

Wow that's really nice. Two hours a marine is your fastest? You must put way more into each mini than I do. I paint fifteen marines in two hours lol.

Awesome start!

Finally good to see the least used loyal legion being made

Iron Hands are an interesting legion. Two bad whatshisname gets killed at the end of Fulgrim though.

Looks great. The cog with the hex bolts look really cool.

Draglide12 wrote:Wow that's really nice. Two hours a marine is your fastest? You must put way more into each mini than I do. I paint fifteen marines in two hours lol.

2 hours per mini for painting sounds about right. A lot more if you are modeling something complex.

Marines look great man, can't wait to see couple with bionic enhancements. Base looks awesome too.

@ Mullet_steve : Your right ... its quite demoralising to have huge piles of plastic just sitting there.

@ Peter Wiggin : Yes the Bionics part I am looking forward too!

As promised here are a few more shots showing the next marine in progress!



The white bolter casing on the plastic bolter worked well for me and I refined the technique using an undercoat of the GW Ice Blue .. then the white .. then a very fine filter wash of the ice blue to finish.



I darkened the eyes on the second marine .. as I found the bright orange/red of the first marines eyes a little too bold.



From this final angle you can see the two tactical emblems on the legs ... the one on the left is the "offical" leg sized emblem, the one on the right is supposedly the "knee" emblem. I found the official one a little too large for my liking, however the question I have is ... which do you think looks best .. Large or small ?

As with all my work I am trying to think of a thematic location for my units and so far my favourite is on a Tech recovery mission for the Adeptus Mechanicus in a Space Hulk. This fits with the rusty tech flooring I chose and lets me do some interesting things with floor panels in the future.

Lastly I will have to think of names for my squad/squad members ... I am just about to re-read HH:Fulgrim again for the Iron hands info ... will pick up the naming scheme from there!

Anyway the question is tactical emblem on the leg .. which do you think looks best .. Large or small ?

Love the bases and the weathering damage on the marines. I think you should contimue highlighting the eyes into a brighter red. The Marines look great though, very nice work!

A table wothy marine take s9-10 minutes assembly line style. These do look really nice though. The bionic aspect of the iron Hands will offer some interesting modeling possibilities.

It was my birthday this weekend, so I got some modelling done

First off I finished the 2nd of my rusty floor bases. I am pleased with the result, especially the oil leak and the "eagle" strip.



I got some work done on an Iron Hands chest plate as well ... I used plasticard strip to add a cog pattern around the top and used photoetch circles and washers to create a "valve" on the left. I am hoping when painted black and white it will "pop" quite nicely.



In addition two more marines have been prepared for painting ... first off is a simple head and bolter swap. The head is from the IH boxed set and I need to think a bit about painting it before I get started. The bolter is from Forgeworlds new Bolter variants, it looked quite a nice piece so I decided he would have a valuable older model bolter. In addition you can see the shoulder pad I made earlier.



This model is a good bit more ambitious, the idea behind him is the "wounded marine" fights on. With his left hand and forarm blown off he can be seen favouring right hand as he tries to fire the bolter with one hand. The shot up from the base (on the right) shows the inside of the blown forearm and you can see the Ulna and Radius bones projecting down, I plan to green stuff up into the socket to show flesh around the bones. This gives me an opportunity to have some blood effects on the base and down the armoured leg, and I am hoping it should look good. His other leg is from the Maxmini.eu bionic set and needs some more work, namely the "shoe" needs extending forward another 1.5mm and I think I am going to use plasticard to make a greave plate which matches the other leg and will go in front of the bionics.



As it was my birthday I was lucky to get some Forgeworld Iron hand loot ... so I am looking forward to fiddling around, seeing what I can made using it!

All looking really good, the marines are well painted and i love your basing, the brass etch and bolter shells are nice touches.

Coming along very nicely. I love the bases.

The more I looked at the bionic leg I wasn't happy with it ... it took me a while to figure it out, but in the end I decided it was the lack of "armour/40k-ishness". With the help of some plasticard and photoetch I set out to remedy the situation.



The final result was more pleasing to the eye .. and as an unexpected bonus it hid the stubiness of the foot nicely too. To join the "greave" together at the back I glued into place some plastic rod and used two of my photoetch hex bolts to "tie" it all together and keep the IH theme.

I finally got round to finishing my first marine, I had needed to do the purity seal and here it is: -



You can also see some of the "Rust" pigment used on the boots to blend the model into the base. It was nice to note with a detail shot that the decal arrow and the "chipping" hold up well even at this level of detail.

Next up we have a modified bolter where I added a rangefinder attachment to the side using plastic rod, ribbed cabling and some green stuff. The "lens" will go onto the end of the attachment when its been painted. Sharing the photo is the next marine due for painting, made using the bionic legs from the iron hands tactical box set.



Finally we have the next finished Iron Hands marine: -



Considering the speed of painting they are coming out better than I had hoped

These are looking great! Love that idea with Tamiya smoke+pigments, definitely going to try that. Sub'd with much interest!

"the damned artificer" over on Warseer suggested something I had missed ... while working on the plasticard greave on the bionic leg I had neglected to add the all important COG edging ... all I can say is that it was late at night!

Here is the new greave with the appropriate edging!



In addition there was a request for a picture of the IH brass etch I got at the weekend with a scale reference. I took this quickly as I am about to head off for work!



There is a higher resolution version here->

Loving your work so far! Keep up the good work.

S_P

As I'm working on an IH sucessor chapter myself, I'll be following this blog with great interest. Keep up the good work.

The Flesh is weak!

ooh pretty...

Wow, this is inspiring! looks great! i'll be watching closely now for more work you've done, maybe you could just quit working and stay home painting mini's? :-)

Quick edit: would love a tutorial on both the Greave and the cog edging.

Minor update for tonight as I got in late ...

All the currently constructed marines and their weapons were undercoated black (who would have guessed) ... I just need to do the weathering work on them tomorrow night!

In addition while sitting here I started work on the next base ... I wanted to do some deck plating that wasn't tread plate .. I used squared plasticard and drilled lots of tiny holes to look like corner rivets on steel tiles. I then cut out a hole for a wiring duct and put a photoetch grill over the top. To give the feeling of depth I then cut out the same size hole on a 25mm Gw plastic base and put plastic rod under it .. to look like cables and ducting running along the bottom.

Here is a picture of the WIP ... the final version will have smaller cables coming up and resting on the decking, as though someone was working on it.



Another long day tomorrow so won't get a huge amount done sadly ... Although I just scored a huge FW order at Bitsandkits.co.uk of old heresy armour ... Very excited about that!

Oh so you're the reason their sold out again so quickly.

Great thread here chap, one small favour to ask really when you talk about using plasticard do you think you'd be able to give some idea of the thickness. I'm new to plasticard and still trying to figure out what each thickness is best for.

Also you keep referring to photo-etch, I was just wondering if there was another company outside of the FW stuff that you were using, for example the grating, is that from FW or another manufacturer?

Sorry for the noobish questions but like I said very new to the whole plasticard and photo-etch business.



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Loving the models so far btw, I think the greave conversion is great, simple yet effective. The bases are looking phenomenal too. Will you be casting them so you have some spares or do you plan to make each one individually?

Very nice work, like the attention to detail.

Lennysmash wrote:Oh so you're the reason their sold out again so quickly.

Great thread here chap, one small favour to ask really when you talk about using plasticard do you think you'd be able to give some idea of the thickness. I'm new to plasticard and still trying to figure out what each thickness is best for.

Also you keep referring to photo-etch, I was just wondering if there was another company outside of the FW stuff that you were using, for example the grating, is that from FW or another manufacturer?

Sorry for the noobish questions but like I said very new to the whole plasticard and photo-etch business.



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Loving the models so far btw, I think the greave conversion is great, simple yet effective. The bases are looking phenomenal too. Will you be casting them so you have some spares or do you plan to make each one individually?

THat would be me. I just bought 2 boxes of IH too. :-) Mine arrived a few minutes ago. Except for 1 miscast head, great looking stuff.

BrotherArgos wrote:Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ... Or so I kept telling myself for the last 2-3 years.

It had been ages since I had the urge to paint one of my Salamanders, I had dabbled with the Imperial Guard, done some nice work with Battlefleet Gothic and generally mucked about without actually painting anything even vaguely Space Marine orientated.

New toys kept arriving and going into the "Space Marine" box, money spent on a pile of plastic that was getting bigger and bigger. It is disconcerting to be the owner of one of the biggest Space Marine websites in the world and not have the urge to play or paint Space Marines. You feel in some strange way disloyal, a bit of a failure, almost like living a lie. I have always liked Space Marines, loved my Salamander Marines, I created the best space marine painter program on the web ... hell my namesake even got a place in the Salamander books by Black Library. But I could not stir any interest in picking up and painting a Space Marine, "Sometimes you just get tired of painting Green ..." kept going around in my head.

Maybe that is the problem, perhaps I am too hooked up "Painting Green", being THE "Salamander" player. So I am going to try and paint some other Space Marines and try not to feel oddly guilty and importantly I am not going to try and make them "works of art". The nearest I ever got to the Demons was making the cut in 2003 at Baltimore, its time to put that dream away and just enjoy painting some stuff to whatever standard takes my fancy.

So I started thinking about what I would like to paint that wasn't a "Salamander", I decided I like old Chapters as they have cool looking old armour etc.

So a founding chapter perhaps? ...

Well to cut a lot of self analysis waffling short, I decided this week to try and paint an Iron Hand Space Marine.

Here is the work in progress ... still need to work on the purity seal and I am not happy with the bolter casing either ... but its a start and my first Space Marine in over 2 yrs. I am waiting for Forgeworld to deliver the Decals for the shoulderpads!

these guys look really good. I'm glad to see an iron hands army under way. in all the time I've played I've never seen someone actually put one on the tabletop. it will definitely be unique.

I love the work on these guys - very impressive look what can be a dull colour scheme!

Nicely done, especially as inspiration for a chapter, and 1st founding at that, which gets little if any face time let alone someone spending the time to convert and paint them. BTW, I was curious how those FW decal sheets would look, they jump right out which is nice and do not seem to dull with the back ground color.

These are really cool, deff looking forward to more. 2 questions though.
1) Have you seen the Maxmini Bionics set? Would be good to use for this for sure.
2) Why isnt this a PM Blog? Might wanna ask a mod to move it.

@ Lennysmash : The plasticard I usually use is .25mm thickness. I have a full range between 0.1 and 1mm in case but the .25mm seems the most useful to me. The photoetch in this case is from Kotobukiya in Japan who have a nice range of "mech" surface details. I might well cast the bases once I am satisfied with what I am producing.

@ Generalstoner : I think the FW decals are stunning, would definately recommend them!

@ whalemusic360 : The leg I used above is from MaxMini and the post just kind of "grew" as I got into it

Any chance of a quick step by step on how you did the cog edging on the Leg Greave?

cool thanks, I have a selection of thickness think the closest i have is a 0.3 but i'll have a little play with it.

Here are some pictures of tonight's work ... I only used a single light to take the pictures, should have used the 2-3 I normally used but its 1am and I am too tired to get them out.

Here is the current work on the new base ... still need to work on the rust and blood (from the wounded marine) ...



Once again I am pleased with the look of the Forgeworld Decals .. and with the shadows the bionic leg looks a little dark (needed more lights), but you can see further down its is quite bright.



The bionic leg is now not shaded and you can see the "pistons" etc that make up the Maxmini.eu bionic leg, it was too dark with just boltgun, so I added some brass and mithril silver.



In this picture if you look carefully you can see the bones protruding from the remains of the arm ... Once the figure is glued to the base, I will deal with the blood pattern on the floor.



Lastly the view from behind ... the Tactical decal felt so start I ran a dark "filter" over it and added some scratches running it down it ..



I like all the results, but this figure is pushing 5hrs now and beyond the limits of what I wanted to spend on a rank and file figure, so I need to finish it off quickly and move on.

The good news is that I have a handle on painting bionics now and should be able to do them quickly next time.

Well it was quite a good weekend

On Saturday morning I got the following two deliveries: -



There should be enough bits for me to make some very interesting pre-heresy armour Iron hands and plenty of Bionic parts for hands/arms



The brushes are for the Holidays ... luckily I am not working after the 24th ... till the 4th of January, so I wanted to get some new brushes for a good 10 days of fun during the holidays.

You might be surprised to note the size if you can make it out ... I paint with size 2 brushes, most people use size 1 or 0 ... but the important thing to note is that you paint with the "tip" of the brush and the Series 7 brushes have the finest "tips" of any brushes I have tried (sadly thats a lot of brushes). The heft of the size 2 brush fits my hand nicely and I can paint detail just as well as I can with a 000 size brush from any other brush maker.

If you haven't tried Windsor & Newton Series 7 "Miniature" brushes ... I recommend them completely, I first used one years ago when Bobby Wong and I met up in New York to do some painting together. Once I had used them I never looked back!

I also did some work on my breastplate and a new Shoulderpad ... both of which I hope to get moulded after the holidays



I need to put an "end" on the new cable I ran on the breastplate ... but thats just minor greenstuff work and should take minutes.

Which Forgeworld packs did you get? I see some preheresey armour and what looks to be a Special Weapon pack and some sort of Charachter pack?

One thing that would be kinda cool, is to have either a genestealer face looking up out of the vent, or maybe a skull....

You've inspired me to do iron hands now damn you!!

Very nice stuff as usual dammit! would everyone stop being better at evrerything than me!

Sunday was quite a productive day ... I finished the base for my wounded marine, added the blood effects I wanted to try with Tamiya Clear Red, started work on a new marine and a new base.

First off here is the finished base / blood effects top shot: -



and a more normal shot ... but this time with some underlighting to try and bring the weathering / metallics out a little more: -



My feeling after the shot was that it was too "harsh/garish" and I need to diffuse the light source to get the effect I wanted ... we live and learn!

I thought it was about time for a small group shot to show progress ... one of the things I like seeing most in other peoples blogs is a "group shot / progress shot" ... it gives the feeling of moving forward, so here is mine: -



There is definitely a rewarding feeling to seeing the progress one has made ... that warm glow of achievement, I know a lot of people finish armies quickly, but I always make slow progress normally and this is a good pace for me.

Lastly the base for the next marine was created, the marine has the claw foot from the IH box set of bionics and I wanted to try and emphasise that. I came to the conclusion that while crossing some pipes the marine had stood on them with his claw foot and started crushing them while stepping over. I also wanted to "wrap" the claws around the pipes to emphasise the foot more.

So I started by choosing the square tiles plasticard and building the pipe work on it, I used tubes of plastic 2mm in diameter, with a strip of plasticard over the top to "bind" them together. It took a couple of wasted attempts to work out how to deform them well ...



In the end I used another set of legs, held them with snub nosed pliers and heated them with a lighter till they were "hot". The first attempt failed as they were not hot enough (trial and error), so I heated them more till I got the imprint I wanted as can be seen above.

I also cut out a panel and did the same trick as I had on the last base, but this time with a panel being unscrewed and just not returned to its original position. I was going to have to find some small screws to finish the base properly

Here you can see all the assembled pieces with the claw foot in place, note the claws on the marines foot had been bent to wrap around the pipes: -



Now I just needed to find some small screws!

@ wolfshadow : You named them all correctly ... Some of the pieces are slightly mis-cast .. hopefully nothing too bad though! Typical forgeworld!

@ Tekeino : Nice idea ... too late for that base but consider it banked

@ mullet_steve : Practice Steve ... that and an open mind is all it takes!

These are just wonderful!

I'm amazed at the sum of details you manage to mark out on those minis...

And I love your bases!!!

Will follow this thread with attention...

These are some stunning miniatures! Very nicely done!

I am going to pick up a series 7 size 2 brush now Really trying to improve my painting at the moment, so I hope this will help me along the way!

The Fourth Marine finished and I went and got my lamps from the loft to take some better photos

Here is a group shot ... the eyes on the very first marine I did still bug me .. compare them to the left most marine and they appear "flat" .... I am going to go back and shade them as I did on the remainder. Apart from that I am very pleased with the way they are looking ... the blue lenses, rusty bases, the FW decals and the weather technique are working well together!



Here is the fourth Marine most probably in terms of painting the one I am most pleased with ... all the experiences from the previous three came together for him.



The minor bolter modification also worked nicely too .. its almost subtle, feels like it was part of the original model which is the usually a sign of success.



The weathering is possibly too subtle ... I might go back and add a little more .. especially on the legs.

Finally here are the current items for moulding, I have added a new breastplate and finished the old one with greenstuff and a small rivet. I decided to use a hex nut as a belt emblem as it felt appropriate given the company clan emblem.



With the lighting set up correctly, I got much clearer photo's, my only problem is no place to keep the lights outside of the loft ... going to have to think about that one as I definitely prefer the pictures taken with them.

Edit : oops ... forgot to mention ... did you notice the tiny rusty screws next to the open panel ? <grins>

Amazing work, the blue lens really make the whole thing pop.

I really like these alot. I am quite fond of your bases and I think I might have to borrow your idea of the diamond plated plastic-card. How difficult is it to cut that stuff?

Excellent work.

I particularly liked the idea of the wounded marine, although I would imagine even an Astartes would lose more blood than that to loss of limb.

I want one. The marines, the bases, the paint, all awesome!

Coming along beautifully! Love all those characterful rim additions. That bionic leg rocks!

How many and what sort of lamps do you use? I'm currently on the hunt for some good ones!

Are you going to paint an entire army or just a few marines?

Looks incredible so far, keep it up.

This is great. Only loyalist chapter I have any interest in. Good to see your doing them justice. Keep up the good work.

wow .. lots of comments ... thanks guys

@ Grass4hopper : Yes I love the blue lenses too .. they "pop" against the models nicely and break the monochromatic feel (as the base does too)

@ Synister_Intent : Your welcome to borrow the idea, and either sharp scissors or GW clippers cut it with ease .. simply file smooth after.

@ VenerableBrotherPelinore : I did think about that quite a bit, I had envisaged him advancing slowly towards the threat and therefore this is not the location he was shot in. Second when I checked the fluff in detail supposedly the Larraman's Organ starts a space marine clotting almost immediately ... which could also arrest the bloodflow quickly.

@ whalemusic360 & iior : <smiles> Thank you

@ wickedcarrot : I got mine from an online-reseller ... Here Very strong, I recommend using a diffusion / light tent.

@ Smitty0305 : No idea to be honest ... the shameful admittance is that I am painting till I run out of enthusiasm. However with the holidays coming up I should keep going till the end of the year at least I actually would like to finish at least a basic army with them if possible.

Beautiful work. As a bit of a base obsessive, I must ask: have you considered casting and selling bases? Seriously impressive stuff.

Loving the attention to detail her both with your building and painting.

Keep it going. you're on a roll!

I really like it! The Iron Hands and Imperial Fists are my favourite loyalists and the way you make each of them so charaterful really makes for an excellent squad all around!

BrotherArgos wrote:
@ wickedcarrot : I got mine from an online-reseller ... Here Very strong, I recommend using a diffusion / light tent.

Wow they cost a bit.... can't argue with results though! I'll have to save up


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Also how many do you use?

@ Wicked Carrot : I use 3 lights ... two of which are the ones I recommended .. the other is my Daylight painting light.

Last night I finished the next marine (apart from his purity seal I noticed while taking pics) ... working on his base tonight/tomorrow night but here are some progress pics. Sorry for the poor lighting .. once again my lights are back in the loft, however I will get them down for the holidays again

The Forgeworld bolter ... although a pain to paint and fiddly actually really looks good in place .. I will get more of these!



Instead of my own "steel armour" wash I made years ago ... I tried badab black and tamiya clear on the back pack .. looks a little darker but quite similar ( I think its important to always try doing things in a different way when ever you can to broaden experience and more importantly have fun)



I ran a dark filter over the tactical decal on the leg to "fade" it a little into the armour ... looking closely I think I will do it again to add more tonal variation.



The "Money Shot" ... Eye, Bionic Eye & Camera Lens ... I am really pleased with the way it all looks and also like the "bronze" skull bionics as well. Once again all items mentioned were "glossed" with tamiya clear.



Interestingly you can see some of the "Tonal" variation on the Chapter Decal ... giving it that "Was white to start with" feel .. before it met the battlefield.

No updates tomorrow ... I am out tonight with friends in the run up to Christmas

Awesome job on the lenses, the chips, the colours, the bases, well.. Pretty much everything!!

I love those "new" FW boltguns, I definitely have to buy some... Someday!

Excellent lens!

Nice work, makes a simple paint scheme interesting.

Absolutely love your one-armed Marine. Consider that idea stolen.

Ahh a night of relaxation ... good food ... and I saw Tron Legacy ... but no Iron Hands were painted!

There is one small redeeming feature to the day as far as hobby work goes, I got to go to my favourite Modelling shop ... "The 4D Modelshop".



This shop has such an enormous stock of modelling materials it feels like being a child and going into Toys R Us, you name it and they seem to have it ... Plasticard, Glue, Tools of all kinds and so on. I had only one hour to shop, I was supposed to helping a large legal firm increase their security ... but I spent all morning looking forward to going to THE model shop

I got a haul of new stuff in that hour ...

3 new types of plasticard treadplate
brass photoetch grid & diamond
2 sheets of plasticard with "tiling"
3 different sizes of plastic strip for "cogging"
2 variants of super glue (one slow set, one gel)
1 pack of UHU glue (for interesting blood effects - more later)
1 set of micro-drills (0.3 mm - 1.6mm)
4 pots of paint (they now stock citadel much to my surprise)
1 spray can of primer (black)
1 new retractable swan and morton scalpel

I also took the time to discuss getting some cutting time on their laser cutter, checking costs for an idea I have

So even though no Iron Hands were painted, I still feel as though I replenished my stocks and moved forward!

Tonight should see the final purity seal decal on the bionic marine head finished, and work begun on his base hopefully to make sure he is finished for tomorrow.

Oh and making a few new decals for the next stage

@ Titanbravo : Go for it .. and come back and show me the result!

Wow, this shop seems interesting...

I'll go and have a look at their online store when I have some time...

I got the base for Marine #5 done last night, I cut a circle of treadplate using the base template I made right at the beginning (about 22.5mm diameter) and then cut that again into 2 sections (roughly 2/3 & 1/3). To support the smaller section I used some 2mm high plastic beams and glued them to the base and then mounted the treadplate on top. I ran a strip of plasticard round the edge to hide the internal cavity and then added some corner strip to the "step" section. Once that had all dried and was solid I worked my way down the step adding small photo etch rivets using super glue. I used a thing superglue for this but washed the step with it and then dabbed it irregularly with a tissue to create a "corroded" uneven texture, this would give the rust pigments something to cling to and work with later.

Recently a purchase from eBay had arrived, oddly this came from a different section of ebay from normal. I had purchased a bag of TINY old watch parts, with lots of very very small cogs and wheels in. I took 3-4 of them and glued them into a heap in front of the step and one on top of the step, I then used the same trick as above to create a slightly corroded texture on the top of the cogs which the rust pigments could cling too as watch parts are often quite smooth. Creating textures like this adds significantly to the micro-detail of any miniature / base and if done sympathetically can really help the paint-job that comes later. As you will see in the following picture the step looks battered and worn, most of that is due to the irregular surface created by the superglue being dabbed as it dried.



I followed up the modelling work with a quick spray of black primer/undercoat and left well alone to dry. When it was dry I painted the whole base in a dark brown and set about using my rust pigments to create the feeling of depth I wanted. I use a rough brush for this as it destroys normal brushes. Using a stippling motion I added the rust in the order of darkest first (and consequently broadest coverage) ... building up with a lighter mid shade ... and then light shade sparingly on top.

After washing the brush out and drying it, I then got my Boltgun metal out and lightly dipped the same rough brush in to it, and wiped almost all the paint off as I was about to start drybrushing. With drybrushing its important to remove almost all of the paint first and then lightly flick the brush back and forward over the "textured" part of the model to highlight the text. I was doing the treadplate first, so I wanted the movement of my brush to match the directions of the raised flooring, so in this case up and down and left to right, importantly no angled strokes as that could ruin the effect I wanted. Once done with the tread plate I ran the drybrush back and forth across the raised step and rivets, this was done slightly unevenly to match the pattern of people walking, if you think about it no one will step over the large metal cogs on the floor to step up, therefore there would be little or no visible metalwork in that area and the rust would be solid. Thinking about usage like this really helps with all weathering work and makes or breaks the believability in my opinion.

Lastly I ran the brush lightly around the very tips of the cogs and lightly across the surface this then left me at the "consideration phase". This is the point where I review my work and decide if it matches my expectations, if not I go back and keep working till it does. This time I decided that I wanted to build up some rust in the areas where the model wouldn't be standing, so using the mid and light rust pigments I went back and touched up those areas again (on the left of the base in the picture and slightly around the cogs). I then considered again and decided I was happy with it, I grabbed the black paint and finished off by tidying the sloping sides of the base in black paint.

This may sound like a lot of work per base, but when you have done it a few times it can be done quickly

Here are a couple of pictures of the model and base ... once again I forgot to do the purity seal ... so looks like that has now been moved to the top of my to-do list.

From the side: -



and from the front: -



The rust nicely offsets the black of the armour and creates a suitable frame

Finally here are a couple of group shots



Next up will be the work on the Sgt ... although I am tempted to do the special weapons perhaps

Are you airbrushing or hand painting?

The white on those bolters is spectacularly clean. Very nice.

I hate you for being able to paint so well.

I'm really impressed with the bases! keep up the good work.

Hey there your iron hand looks great i specialize in painting only i dont play and i found over the past twenty years of painting 40k that the most fun i had was mixing up what i paint i have squads from almost all the founding legions(imperial) and almost all founding (chaos) its just more fun to test your meddle by mixing it up. being a salamader painter perhaps you can help me out what green do you use to paint them i have been using a special mix of scorpion and dark angel green

Great thread and great work on the models thus far!

Love how the scheme and details are coming together to make for a really flavorful army.

The only thing I'm not sold on is the "white" bolters.

They seem a little flat and too pristine imho.

You have to figure that if those marines are moving about in a rusty environment: climbing ladders and rubble, taking cover behind rusty girders, etc., etc. That those bolters are gonna show a little rusty grime on them, etc...

@ CT GAMER : Your absolutely right and I have been fiddling around in the background with some bolters sprayed white trying to find a way to do "rust grime" as you put it.

Looking at the touch pattern for the bolter I had worked out there would be "hand" patterns only on the forward part of the gun near the fingers of the left hand. In addition there should be "random" marks along the rest of the casing depending on the actions of the marines.

The first attempt I tried using the open palm hand from the missile arm ... and pressing it into the pigments. It kind of worked but not quite what I was looking for. I tried using brushwork after that but could not quite get the "finger" pattern I wanted. The next attempt I was thinking of was to make a silicon rubber copy of the open hand and using that in the pigment to get a slightly more normal looking pattern. Suffice to say the aim is to perfect a technique to do it and then retro-fit the result back on the models already completed

@ marinepainter8778 : Snot green ... with scorpion green added as required for highlights .. finishing with a thin line of scorp green.

@ wolfshadow : Hand painted ... but I can and do use my aribrush when required, but usually on Vehicles

Your Iron hands look amazing, i love the bases!
Where/How do you get your Custom base supplies?

These are the best Iron Hands I have ever seen,congratulation on making me actually like the chapter now.
I agree with your opinon of the FW bionic leg it totally needed the greave.
And lastly the next time you paint lenses like that please do a step by step.

Loving them still. Keep up the great work! My only nitpick, and this is a taste matter, is the bolter looks a bit plain. Maybe some black decals or freehand of gears? Otherwise, good stuff.

Wanting to do something original when modelling is always difficult, there are thousands of modellers all of whom have excellent ideas and do their very best to make them into reality. We all are constantly inspired by the works we see on-line and in the real world, to the extent that it shapes our thoughts and often strangely limits our ideas as we sub-consciously copy what we like. With my Sgt. figure I wanted to try and do something original (or at the minimum rarely seen) and at the same time appropriate to the space-hulk theme I had adopted for my Iron Hands. The initial idea came from the normal practice of making special figures somehow more pronounced on the battlefield, people seem to alter their height, often placing them on bigger / higher bases. With that in mind I decided to "raise" my Sgt. above the crowd and use the "Vertical" space on his base somehow.

It didn't take too long to combine "Vertical" with "Space-Hulk" and decide on a scenario where either my Sgt. was descending or ascending onto a new level. That then led onto ladders between levels and I suddenly had the image I wanted, he would either be the last man to leave the level and firing into the crowd of opponents chasing the squad as he climbed up, or first man down onto a new level scanning for and finding enemies to fire upon as he descended. Here is what I saw in my minds eye on Christmas day as I sat with my family: -



With that image in my mind I set about making the base ... I used two thick strips of plasticard for the sides of the ladder, I taped them together with masking tape and measured and drilled the 1mm holes through them for the rungs. I then rounded the tops to give the feeling that the ladder only stopped a little way above the marine, as it would be impossible to show a roof this would be essential to the illusion of height. Then putting some treadplate plasticard on a base and cutting through it, I pushed the sides of the ladder down into the base and glued them. The rungs were then added one by one and also glued but the ends were left with 2-3mm randomly each side, I did not do the last rung as I needed to thing how the hand would attach to it.



I then held my rule along the outside edge of the ladder and using that as a cutting guide, I used my flush cutters (the GW ones) to cut along the ruler, therefore insuring each rung would end at the same distance from the ladder, small details like everything being level help significantly to make the mind accept what its seeing. So with the base done I set about the creation of the Sgt. the first thing I would need would be an extended arm, if you think about anyone hanging onto a ladder while firing, the hand/arm holding the ladder is usually extended and taut as it takes the weight. The pointing arm with the index finger extended was my final choice, I drilled a 1 mm hole through the "fist" portion and then assembled it with the top rung through it and glued the run into place with an arm dangling from it. The chest and back plate were easy to find and I used the techmarine plate with the cog and skull on, I did add a small cog to the belt buckle after filing it flat to enhance the IH style.



Next came the legs, I knew the running legs would give me something close to what I wanted, but upon closer examination the position of the feet would wrong. The foot in contact with the rung would need to be compressed and the other foot would need to be extended either coming up from the rung below or descending towards it. This all involved some drastic foot surgery as I removed appropriate looking feet from another pair of legs, tidied them and then attached them to the set of legs I wanted. Obviously removing and reattaching feet also cost me the power cables normally found from ankle to foot, so using some of the dragonforge ribbed cabling I set about recreating the power cables. Once finished I was pleased with the result especially as the ambiguity of whether the figure was climbing or descending still remained. I then stuck the backpack on and gave it a slight angle to show the shift in weight while climbing, I had used this small trick before as it emphasises the figures movement without being very obvious.



Next came the arm with the weapon, I normally magnetise everything I work with and this would be no exception. I planned to have another outstretched arm and to sever the hand after the wrist joint. Having done so I drilled a hole into the wrist for a 2mm rare earth magnet. The magnets I use are strong enough to hold a plastic/resin weapon in place without it rotating and a matching magnet would be placed into the hand holding the weapon. The initial two weapons chosen were a plasma pistol and a bolt pistol, but my plans include all possible weapon options for a sgt in a tactical squad including powerfist. Lastly I chose the head I wanted, it had to have bionics and have some energy in the facial features, One of the Admins on the Bolter & Chainsword (SCC) had the excellent idea of using the Shadow Captain Korvydae head from ForgeWorld and I must say I think his choice was excellent (I also happened to have one in my bits collection).



After all this modelling I was left with the figure you have seen above, held together with blu-tac while I get the positioning right, I need to "assemble" him with glue now (all apart from the arm on the ladder) and start work on the magnetised weapon options. Once all that is done I need to go and fill in some areas with green stuff and make him a new curled index finger. Then I can start work on painting him!



I hope he meets my original conditions of being both themed and original, I don't recall too many marines in this position (apart from some really old GW dioramas).

That is so many different shades of awsome. If thats the level that you go to for a SGT, I can't wait to see what you come up with for your HQ choices. :-P

Impressive positioning.
Wasn't aware imagination at X-mas can lead to such dynamic models.

It is original as this is the first marine I've seen climbing.

Would a "shooting" arm/hand combo and a separate "CC arm/hand" combo give a better result as swapping "shooty" and "CC" weapons at a arm in a shooting position?
Since any CC-weapon would be 'pointing' at something. Could be your plan from start to have him either shoot or point tough.

BrotherArgos wrote:Ahh a night of relaxation ... good food ... and I saw Tron Legacy ... but no Iron Hands were painted!

There is one small redeeming feature to the day as far as hobby work goes, I got to go to my favourite Modelling shop ... "The 4D Modelshop".

My god, that place is round the corner from where I live. A ten minute bike ride or five minute tube journey. As soon as I saw the photo, I knew it was gonna be close. I'll be in there on Thursday. I've been trying to decide how to base my Tyrant's Legion, and this thread has helped me come up with a few options.

@ wolfshadow : Its a long time till I get to an HQ choice ... lets hope I can have a few more ideas.

@ 1hadhq : Ahh you will have to keep watching to see the solution to the multiple weapons

@ Fifty : Its a treasure trove for modellers ... go .. go NOW!

Oh, quick question, where did you get your Etched brass cogs/hex nuts and gears?

The etched work were from MiG Productions ... as were the pigments, excellent place for Modellers.

I have a FLHS that carries the MiG pigmensts... will have to see if they have the Brass as well.

Thanks for the tip. :-)

Iron Hands are awsome. I'm doing an IH sucessor, so am stalking your long for tips and tricks.

Have you seen the SteamPunk weapons that MaxMini is going to be releasing? (Hopefully tomorrow ... Prezmas, I'm watching you, you tease!)

http://www.maxmini.eu/forum/index.php?topic=346.0

I did indeed see the MaxMini steampunk weapons, Freakforge (the sculptor) sent me a PM to show me after he saw my use of the Bionic legs.

Hey there, first I'd like to tell You how much I like your work!

Second, I'd like to ask if You're willing to sell some shoulder pads? I'm doing the same clan and I'd like to have your pads more than to use decals. Thanks!

One thing i think is so good about this (apart from the amazing painting, basing, modelling, ideas, etc.) is the fact that you seem to improve from model to model, whereas most people improve from squad to squad.

So keep going!

Sadly that's because I wasn't trying very hard on the early models. One of the aims of this project is to reduce the time to make each model. That is sliding somewhat and I need to get back to that!

This is staggering stuff. Beautiful, inspiring work mate!

Dude this work is amazing, keep it up. Its so simple looking!! Great work

Lovely work. Makes me want to redo my Iron Hands.

All I can say about the sergeant is: WOW!!!

That is inspiring work. The whole thread has been great, but the sergeant is absolutely amazing.

Every time you start a project log I just feel like giving up- your stuff is amazing.

Well its been a good week at home and I am back to work tomorrow .. however not much modelling work done but lots of relaxation and good family times.

First up are a couple of models I have been preparing for painting. Nothing special, just a running special weapons marines and a normal firing marine with a FW special hand: -



Here you can see the Special weapon marine with the hand magnetised to take Flamer, plasma or melta: -



This is using the FW heresy style melta weapon .. which I like a lot!



Next is the Plasma gun and finally the Flamer.

They are stuck onto their "painting" base where they get undercoated and then painted and finally decalled.

They then get transferred over to their final bases shown below, the first one is a half water with a grill over it kind of thing. I used a hollowed out 25mm base with a bottom on it, I got them from Australia at Back2Basix however they did not appear as deeply "hollowed out" as I would have liked and I had to work at it to get what I wanted.



I then poured and use GW water effects and placed the grill on top as seen below, however I still think it needs at least another layer which will be another 24hrs to dry.



There are small silver seed beeds (0.5mm) in the water mix which when the other layer is poured will look like rising bubbles under the water. Oh I also mixed green ink with the water effects (which I am fairly certain is just pva glue) to give a dark green murky feel.

The other base is a drain cover from a WWII resin pack embedded into some tread plate with edging surrounding it. I made the rivets out of thin plasticard using my "punch and die" kit and then just stuck them on. I also did a little corner work with 45degree cuts to make it look slightly more realistic (basic rule of modelling, small detail can really help).

Finally I am working on a left handed set for firing marines as I am getting tired of using the same damn sets of arms everytime.

Here is the initial work, in comparison mode for me while I am finishing off with green stuff etc. it feels fairly similar to the other arm in size and orientation and just needs some work done on the joints with green stuff and some smoothing on the top of the hand.

These are some of the nicest space marines I have ever seen. I actually don't like space marines at all, but man.... these guys look awesome!

Can't wait to see that sargent painted up!

Love those FW spec weps. Especially the Meltagun. Might have to order me some when the big post holiday paycheck comes in.

Dude, your work is just inspiring!

I hope it is inspiring .. otherwise this is just a big opportunity to show off!

You should convert the Left-Handed Marine's Bolter to have a Vertical Forward Grip like this one; that way, you won't even need to change the angle of the hand.

I went to 4D modelling today. I loved it. Managed to keep my spending down to £125.

@ Fifty : I am glad you got away that cheaply ... its expensive but a great place!

Well its been a pretty poor week since I last posted (6 days), I have been working on the B&C Upgrade and dealing with a the kitchen roof having rotted and getting it repaired/rebuilt. All of which meant no time for painting or modelling which SUCKED.

Finally today I got to do some painting and decided to work on the special weapons marine I showed pictures of last time. I was thinking about the base I wanted to use for him and my time spent up on the roof had brought home to me that you have to move carefully in a dangerous environment. Well that was all I required to put together a very amusing base: -



The top right portion of the image shows a mine hidden under a loose floor plate, the other two pictures show the floor plate gently resting on top of the mine. With this arrangement I would use my running special weapons marine and position him rather unwisely about to run over the loose plate!

Here you can see him with FW old style multimelta in hand ... running forward over the now painted base: -



As you can see from the picture its likely he will catch the plate in passing, however lets not forget this is a Space Marine we are talking about and he may notice and evade at the last minute. I used the rust pigments extensively on the soles of his feet to make the figure feel "attached" to the base. In addition the end of the melta has "soot" residue around the end of the barrel, this was done with black MiG pigment and the MiG fixative to keep it in place (although I did wipe a little off to show a hint of metal).

I went for a two-tone metal solution for the gun as there was not enough visible casing to paint white, I then used badab black wash to add depth and shading and finally used Tamiya clear paint to "gloss" some parts of the gun and not others. All of this added enough variation to the weapon to stop it looking "bland" metallic. The Bronze used draws the eye to the Melta when your looking at the figure, which was what I was looking to achieve.



In the last picture you can see the mine under the plate waiting for the left foot to swing onto it. Also the rust weathering is staining the white tactical arrow on the leg, the large expanse of white leads me to do something to it on every figure I paint.

It was good today to get back into painting my Iron hands and as I am home tomorrow I will be doing another figure!

Nice, simple base touch. Looks good!

Looking forward to getting my hands on some of those MiG pigments next time I have some spare $$.

I love those FW special weapons. Asked for some for Xmas, but alas did not get them :(

The MiG pigments or the FW pigments are definitely worth getting. Mig Jiminez (the MiG owner) did a good article on using pigments here: -

http://www.missing-lynx.com/rare_world/rw05.htm

With the completion of two more marines (to be shown later) I once again returned to base making, so far the base making is giving me a chance to tell some stories and another outlet for my urge to create. I am happy with the "Rusty" hulk/spaceship feeling so far but decided to look into a more realistic looking rust theme last week. Rust to me always has "volume" and texture as well as colour, I wanted to try and capture the almost flaky/layered quality it seems to have.

Here are the two bases I did this week seeking that effect: -



The "Ducting Cover" base above is the one I think I am happiest with overall ... it captures for me the texture and "volume" I am looking for. Every time I look at it I can see layer upon layer of rust with parts chipped away and revealing metal underneath where the duct has been used. This "recent" usage feeling is something I try to put in most of the base work as an overarching theme, the bases are meant to look rusty and old, but at the same time with little clues that hint that someone or something has been here recently. Like leaving grate covers open, small scuff marks showing metal under rust, removed floor plates and mines placed under tiles. These should all combine to aid the story we are trying to tell for the squad, advancing into what they believe is an occupied space hulk and once again small details aid believability and help to support the background we wish to convey to the observer at a sub-concious level.



For the second base I aimed at slightly less rust, attempting to practice and gain control of the new technique I was using. As I had mentioned in an earlier post (the Sgt. post) we are often helped in many ways by what we see others do and this is a good thing, but unless we try and build upon what we see and develop our own techniques we can end up stifling our own creativity. Accepting someone else's "solutions" is a good way to learn new things, but it should not stop us trying to do better on our own, standing on the shoulders of giants so to speak. That was the reason for this new rust technique, seeing if I could find a way to get what I wanted in my minds eye.

When I made the bases, I was visually more pleased with the second base, I quite liked the small floor based "control panel" next to the conduits/cables, while the first base was quite simple in design and was sufficient for the task (having depth under the grate etc), it also felt a bit boring in some ways. However for me that turned around after painting and rusting, the complexity of the layers of rust brought the first base to life for me in a way which the second base didn't have (with its less rusty approach).

So .. before I post the new Space Marines on the bases, which base do you prefer ? ... and does the rust look more realistic than my previous work ?

I like both, but I think I prefer the first one slightly. It really does have a layered flaky look to it.

I cant wait to see more keep it up!

Looks great..... keep it up.

Yes, the rust does look more realistic, like you said it's flakey and layered.
I think the first one looks more rusty than the second, or that the second is a cleaner rust (Like someone has tried to clean away the flakes)

I think they come from different locations perhaps .. the first one from a corrosive area ? ... the second from somewhere less so!

Wow, these guys are incredible! Keep it up!

Your marines look fantastic. The bases are beautiful and really add to the paint job.

Your method for painting lenses really makes them pop and stand out from the rest of the model.

I will be keeping my eye on this one.

As part of a speed experiment I painted two marines at the same time last week. The times broke down in the end to: -

Painting Figure - 2.5hrs
Painting Base - 30 mins
Decals (3) - 15 mins

So I am at about 3hrs 15 mins per figure, which is a little higher than I had thought, but the results seem worth it, especially considering my Salamanders were more like 10-11hrs each. I still want to keep the timing as low as possible, so that I can actually get some units together and possibly even PLAY 40k!

As already mentioned last week was painting/weathering experiment week, trying new things and challenging older ideas. This marine was the first using the Forgeworld Bionics from the character set, but in all other respects he was a normal marine with no special modelling. Given his "normality" I planned to extend the rust weathering to other areas of the body, I decided on areas likely to touch walls and floor and as such the knees, shoulderpads and backpack vents.



I kept the shoulderpad and backpack weathering light for this model to get a "view" on it, but I think it adds a little without detracting from the monochrome colour scheme. The knees got a little more weathering than the higher stuff, more in keeping with how I had done the feet.



Overall the "stepping" pose on the base worked nicely and with the marine now on the base it has returned to being my favourite out of the two again. Damn I am fickle!

Overall I was pleased with the result and may spread "the rust" to the rest of the marines ... What do you think ?

They are awesome. Loving the weathering on the marines.

O the Bases are pretty cool Wish I could convert like that.

30 minutes on the base? o_O

But it does look really nice.

Man... I really need more $. Materials realyl do help. I want some of those pigments really badly.

This.
Is.
Amazing.

The second marine this week was an attempt to add simple battle damage to a shoulder pad and try out the other Iron Hands box set Bionic Head. I must say the asymmetric lens made me unsure about this one, it just feels weird to me every time I look at it .. even when finished, to the extent I am not sure I would use this head type again.



You will notice the damage to the shoulderpad, either a sword or claw strike across the pad, added after the decal and touched up. It had been commented there shoulderpads were not getting their fair share of "damage", so I am working on different techniques to show damage on them!



In keeping with the heavily rusted / corroded base I decided to add more weathering to the feet/lower legs than normal and also to the Tactical symbol on the greave (I really just wanted to try the kneepad symbols on the FW decal sheet). This should show the worse environment this marine is advancing through ...

Lastly I have a group shot showing my current eight marines all together ... almost up to the squad now .. only got the Heavy Weapon marine and the Sgt to do ...



I am pleased with the cohesive feel they have

They look really nice together well done!

Sorry buddy I don't think they work, give them to me and start again, kidding of course.

Great start for an army, couple of questions, the styrene tile and diamond tread patterned sheets, what scale/measurements are those in. Secondly what is you process for the metals, I'm currently starting a Doom legion army so I'm gathering some research on different techniques.

Looking better and better...

@ Lennysmash : The tread plate is in 1:100 .. The metal I use Boltgun Metal for the base, then I have my own "Steel" mix I use which is a concoction of Tamiya Smoke, Badab Black Wash, W&N Flow Improver with a hint of Tamiya clear blue. The steel mix goes over the top of the boltgun to finish it off.

They look so good together. The bases bring them all together. Amazing job!! Keep it up, look forward to more.

I don't usually show my work at an early stage ... when I am fiddling and trying to get things right. However I am pleased enough with the pose (and story-telling) on the heavy weapon trooper to show this. Please excuse the very early stage in the work, the photography and the slight blur, its almost midnight and I am going to bed soon: -



Hunkering down behind a low partition, aiming under heavy fire ... shells hitting the steel partition with resounding impact ... but he only has one chance to get this shot right!



You can see him aiming at you ... time freezes as for some reason all you can see is the grey partition wall with rust creeping up it ... your eyes take in the bullet holes riddling the wall in hyper detail ... almost abstractly you see the arming light flicker on and and his finger pulling the trigger!



Sorry for the over dramatisation, but for this model captured my imagination more than most while he was in my head, and then when I made him the story/imagery enthused me enough to post him.

Please don't critique him, he is not finished yet in so many ways, nor is the base, save the critique for later when he has had the time and detailing he deserves. I just wanted to show you guys a glimpse into the beginning part of my "design" process that I normally don't get to show.

I hope you can visualise the fight going on around him like I can

So is this going to be for a second squad that is locked in a fire fight? Would be a cool to see a Space Marine with a corner shot device.

No .. the squad is advancing round the edges while he is taking the shot to clear the obstacle ... or thats what is happening in my head .. not sure about yours?

What a cheat, moveable cover, haha. Just kidding, has a great pose and an even better base. Thanks for the info on the styrene and the metals btw. I've heard a few people say they use a touch blueish wash when doing their metallics I shall have to give it a bash.

As I am going to be busy with work tomorrow and attending Relic/THQ on Friday for a day spent playing Dawn of War II Retribution I thought I would show something interesting to cover my absence and lack of work for 2 days.



These Bionics and heads were from Puppetswar and could make a nice addition to my Iron Hands.

A couple of the heads will work well on Space Marines, and all the rest of the parts too .. although I am not sure on the chest piece and the kneeling legs feels a little off (but not uncorrectable). The arms work nicely as does the power fist

I was looking at that set a while back but decided against it.

Why ? ... I am curious !

Not quite what I was looking for, and I had already ordered the Maxmini set.

and I really think the Powerfist is fugly. Also had worries about the chest peices.

Oh I so agree about the chest piece .. however I suspect the Power glove looks better in Real life ..

I was planning on adding a "covering" plate for it ... that will make it more 40k

Oh, and you should totally PM a mod to move this to the Blog section.

I am scared of Mods ... especially on Dakka <grins>

Looks around for that most evil of admins LegoBurner.

Finally moved this thread to the proper place, some people, honestly

<laughs> I wondered whether you would remember after our chat today

Those bits are great, I'm not to sure on some of those heads, two of them inparticular. But none the less good stuff. Keep it coming!

I did some more work on the Missile Launcher marine tonight ... specifically working on the servo arm attachment that comes with the "Missile Launcher" backpack from the Devastators box set. Looking at the construction it is intended to simply take a missile from the bottom of the pack and swing it up over the marines shoulder and drop it into his left hand so he can load the Missile Launcher.

I have to admit that was a bit disappointing to me ... the Iron hands had long been masters of the Servo Arm, so I decided to alter the basic arm that came with the pack and make it into a fully functional Servo Arm. The arm was a little short so I extended both the forearm and the upper arm sections so it could reach and reload. The new arm also needed to retract and extend, so I made the add on part slightly larger than the original forearm and structured it so the original forarm could retract into the new part.

Once done it looked a little "empty" so I added some bracing and some plasticard strip to the joint to make it more obvious how it fitted together. I was happy with the way it looked now and the added detail helped. I also cut the claw open and added in a missile to show it was ready to reload. There is still a little filing to do and some green stuff to fill small gaps, but that will have to wait till tomorrow as I stayed up till 1:30am to work on it.

Here are a couple of pictures taken in poor lighting and quickly before I go to bed.



Hope you like it

Absolutely love it, it just goes to show you don't need complex models or over-the-top paint jobs to give a force character. This P&M Blog shows how good a cohesive paint job can be combined with an eye for simple detail, that gives a flawlessly executed model. Awesome.

Also how good it can look if your willing to spend as much money and time on the base as the model itself (note to self stop cheaping out on the bases!)

Incredible.

Lovely stuff. Amazing modelling skills.

Subscribed!

@ mwnciboo : Thanks! ... I do sometimes spend an age on the bases, but I think a you can ruin a good picture by putting it a bad frame and ruin a good figure by putting it on a boring base.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Iron-hands-Iron-warriors-Mechanicus-power-axe-40k-/320644725343?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item4aa7ea3a5f#ht_500wt_928

Just saw these on Ebay no idea where they're from but they may work for you.

those are from maxmini.

No pretty pictures today ...

Now that I got rid of half of you and the ones who are intelligent are still reading we shall continue. I got quite a few things done at the weekend and its about that I wanted to write this morning. I encountered what I shall call "Stalling points" for want of a better word, those times when you keep putting off particular tasks time and time again till you "Stall" the entire project.

I found myself stalling at the weekend, I had the following streams of activity for my Iron Hand project all running concurrently: -

Sgt. Powerfist - Rebuild and restructure for magnets. Green stuff to repair slight damage to the armour casing.
Sgt. Hand - Tidy up wrist. Green Stuff the "sub-armour" between wrist and hand.
Hvy Wpns. - Green stuff small gaps in plasticard on Servo Arm and build the other side of the "sphere" at the joint to the backpack.
Hvy Wpns. - Build sole of shoe with plasticard strip.
Secret. - Green stuff secret helm for command squad.
Ven Dread. - Think about magnets and fitting together.

So ... guess what I did out of that list ...

That's right I played with the Venerable dread arm and weapon fittings till I got a solution for magnets and put plasticard strip on the sole of the Hvy Wpns marines foot, I then stalled!

Its quite amusing how our minds play tricks at this point ... I went and spent some time with my daughters, cooked dinner, watched a movie and then read a black library book before bed. Strangely however when I awoke on Sunday morning and went back to my desk, the "Stalling Point" was still there, forcing me to think of other things to do, even to the point of considering an Iyanden Ghost warriors army and how to paint yellow.

Finally my wife asked how the Iron hands were coming along and I had nothing to tell her ... It was then I broke through and applied some thought to what I was doing and made the list of things you see above (well actually just the bits I had remaining). It didn't take long after I had the list in front of me to realise I had been putting something off ... doing the green stuff work. My mind then went on all kinds of acrobatic attempts to avoid the self blame ... my favourite of which was ... "Its just common sense to gather it all up and do it all at once" ... which is of course complete rubbish.

I realised that this had happened often in the past as well ... saving things I didn't enjoy doing up into a large pile of unpleasantness which then makes me not want to do the project and finally kills it for me. Now I am a reasonable sculptor, you can see that from my work on the Steel Legion, this wasn't even complex work, it was just filling and tidying up. However now I had identified what was putting me off, I could do something about it, so I sat down and did ALL the green stuff work I needed to do and felt so much better about it afterwards.

I then started thinking about other things that caused the same reaction and came to the conclusion spraying black primer was another stalling point for me, where perfectly ready to proceed models sat there for days while I "got ready" to spray them. So from now on, I am not doing that, I am spraying as soon as I am ready ... and sculpting as soon as its required.

This is a project I want to finish ... not fail to complete it just because of stalling over something ridiculous.

Awwww no pics today :(

You did however inspire me to start my relictors via showing some god awesome conversions!

The biggest stalling point for me is "I have to spray stuff and now then I can't do X,Y and Z before the rooms smells okey again".

Also had similar woes about green stuff so I have started to use almost only grey stuff since it doesn't make my hands itchy as green stuff sometimes does.

I have found that blocks are easiest solved by doing something else like a random figure with no real goal and modify it or scratch build something with not that detailed goals..

But keep up the nice marines! They that even I might like something from the imperium

Great stuff, I'm always happy to see more Iron Hands! I really like the basing, keep it up and push on forward!

Love the servo arm; had tried something similar, not as successful as yours so might pinch some of your detailing ideas. Also, I feel your stalling pain; sculpting gs pads is tedious work, but like you focused and did a bunch. Strangely nice to hear how other folk struggle; one of the great things about Dakka, I feel, is that honesty.

Inspiring work. I haven't read everyone's comments, so somebody else may have said this already, but the work with the bases shows that you totally know what the Iron Hands are about. Great paint work too, especially the details

Your greenstuff dilemna is one I am familiar with. I also need to admit it and deal with it so I can move on.

Normally I work at home in the evenings, I try and put aside an hour a night to try and keep some momentum, however the real world often intrudes and you don't achieve your goals (falling asleep on the couch last night didn't help for example). So to make up for missing my painting time I have decided to do some painting at the office today, I have painted while travelling before and have built a small kit to help me do so. This is what I carry with me: -



At the back we have two boxes, where my sadly organised brain has dictated a colour coded scheme, green is a painting box & purple is sculpting. The box on the left has my missile launcher marine, broken down into components for easy access. While on the right we have the Sgt & left handed arms in for final Green Stuff work and if you look really carefully in the top right you can see my Gw paint pot.



In the middle we have a "Really Useful Box" with my paints and brushes, the brushes are W&N Series 7 Miniatures, sizes 0, 1 & 2. I also have 6 paints with me, Vallejo Black and White with Citadel Black, Boltgun, Mithril Silver & Dwarf Bronze, these represent. For this project these paints give me almost all I need to do the job.

Oh and as you can see the weathering on the Missile Launcher marine has been done on the body and backpack, I need to do the head, servo arm and missile launcher today.



In the left to the front we have my sculpting kit, this is new for me and I have put it together to overcome the recent "problem". There is a set of the smallest hardest clay shapers you can get, a Wax Carver #5, a dental probe and the green stuff tubes. This kit plus some saliva covers almost all I need to sculpt anything I require. Oh and my youngest daughter Amelia gave daddy a spare pencil case this morning to help carry his sculpting tools <bless>. I asked her for a purple one to match the colour coding but obviously her devotion and generosity only stretch so far



My modelling glasses, not because I need glasses but actually because they are +3.5 magnification. I went to our local pharmacy (Boots in the UK) and got some for about £20. They help me a lot with sculpting and even with painting intricate detail, for me a definate worthwhile addition.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ blambi : Only problem is if I do a random other figure I lose sight of my goal ...

@ inmygravenimage : So lets see a pic of the ServoArm !!

@ Flashman : Thanks ... always nice to see someone new come along for the ride

I like that you paint at work. I once took my stuff to school with me
but that wasn't so great. Most of the time I spent explaining what i
was doing.

Lol, yes I'd get all sorts of sarcastic comments if I started painting at work. It would get boring very quickly (the comments, not the painting)

I take stuff to work with me when I'm on 12 hour shifts.

I can get a lot done sometimes... sometimes its just too damned busy.

I have been totally uninspired to work on my models this week... Gotta get off my butt and get somthing done.

One small note to stop any confusion here ... I paint during my lunch hour at work .. not during the "Work" time

These are just too awesome. I wish I could make bases half as cool as your from scratch, but instead I bought some resin bases from Forgecraft Games.

All I can say is WoW! This really puts my less then mediocre attempts to shame....
Great job, I love the amount of detail you're putting into rank and file troops.

Out of interest, where do you work?

I am not sure admitting where I work would be a good thing

Lol, afraid your bosses will be cross at you painting, or that I am a mad stalker?

I am the boss

Brother Argos! Sorry to post off topic but have you done any work on the Steel Legion? I used a ton of techniques and inspiration from that thread to make my own WWII 101st Airborne IG. Would love to hear about any progress.

I got another couple of hours on the Missile Launcher figure last night ... so we have pretty pictures today.

He is still work in progress as I need to make the missile launcher white, paint the servo arm, paint the base and finally put the decals on. From the front and back: -



and from the sides: -



I noticed his rear foot had risen by the end of the photo's so he looks a little offset in the picture above, I haven't glued him to the base yet, but obviously will once the base is painted.

For some reason I am resisting painting the missile launcher tube white ... it someone feels more natural in black, however I think I need to do it to make him fit with the rest of the squad.

@ Maj. Winters : Sadly no .. the project is all safely stored away and can be resurrected whenever I get the urge. I think I bit off more than I could chew. I stopped wanting to modelling for almost 2 yrs after that ... because I "failed".

It did teach me a valuable lesson however, set small achievable goals. The make sure I finish them before moving on to other things.

I do like the black tube. How odd would it be to paint the front section of the tube white. The part up in between the metal.

Or the part that is metal now maybe? Needs to have the white to break it up, but the black looks good too.

I succumbed at lunch time and painted the barrel white, I was pleasantly suprised to find it actually worked well. It needs another thin coat or two tonight to get a nice smooth white, but I think I like it

Looks great! I'm always terrible at painting white, but you've been doing fantastically. I eagerly look forward to more.

Keep up the good work!

How have I not seen this thread before!? You have perhaps got the best collection of fantastically modeled and painted Iron Hands I have ever seen! The attention to detail is truly fantastic. You have made me look at my SM collection today and I can definitely say that I will be working feverishly to make them look as original as yours albeit with a BA scheme

Now, I must get me some plasticard..

Cain

BrotherArgos I love your tecnique with your Iron Hands! I am gonna have to steal you method for my Ravenwing!

I subbed great thread keep it coming!

Nice work, i like to paint on the go too, but i just use a pencil box since it can hold alot more than that.

@ Commander Cain : Go buy Plasitcard .. get lots and lots of different sizes and go WILD with it

@ GreyDeathOne : Go steal it .. BUT .. if you do something come back here and show me a picture

Its been a weekend for daughters and family, but I did work on the Missile Launcher some more

First off I was asked to show the Puppetwar heads on a marine body to show "fit" ... I think they fit pretty well to be honest .. what do you think?



Moving on to the Missile Launcher, I finished the base off in a night of effort and rusty walls. I tried lots of different techniques with the bullet holes but I think I finally nailed it. You should also notice the tread on the bottom of the space marine boot made from plasticard and the rear of the wall where the impact marks of the bullets on the other side show through.

Obviously there is still more to do ...

Servo Arm
Rust weathering on the marine
Decals on Shoulderpads, Purity Seals and Missile Launcher.
Tidy up

I will be doing most if not all of that tonight while I watch Star Wars II with my daughter Amelia (the 10yr old).



One thing I was thinking of for the next squad will be "making" the room they are in and ensuring all the flooring styles "fit better" rather than just being grouped by the "rusty floor" theme. I think it would also make for a wicked diorama with a squad of marines under fire in a space hulk.

Nice work on the missile launcher dude, lots of character to him.

Those look good. I was thinkign about picking up those for my Iron Warriors.

Your modelling and painting work is amazing. You have something special here. Sub'd.

Nice touch with the tread on the marines foot.

I thought I should mention that you have inspired me to finally paint my marines bases. All 59 of them!

BrotherArgos, they look incredible! I'll definitely be paying more attention to the way I base my marines now. The character and narritive that you've developed with a few well executed touches is inspiring.

tsd

He took a long while and quite a bit of fiddling, but finally the heavy weapons marine is complete ...



The rust effects took a while to work out, but in the end a small amount of downward stroke got the feeling I wanted into the rust on the wall, it bugged me for ages, but I had repeated a similar technique to how I had done the flooring and it just felt wrong. All it took was some simple soft brushwork to add a small feeling of downward movement (gravity), the change is hardly noticeable now it feels right.



It was from the right hand side of the figure I was most worried about balance ... there were a couple of times when the damned marine would just not sit right on the base but in the end it worked!

There is shading on the white tube ... but no amount of coaxing gets decent white shading out of my camera (always an excuse to upgrade), I tried Vallejo's pale wash and it worked nicely, it is specially built for pale colours/white. I just wish I could actually show you!



You might also notice I have "upped" my photo technique a little ... for ease of production I have setup a mini-studio next to me and have a wifi-card in my camera to send straight to my computer. This means I can leave it all setup and just pop a figure in for its shot! ... More on all this later though

He took way longer than I wanted and slowed me down a bit, but the result seems worth it to me ... I hope you like him?

Damn fine work!

But too slow really .. never going to get an army done at this pace am I ?

Who cares how long it takes when the end result is so fantastic!?

Sublime Argos, your the second example of a drilled launcher I've seen in as many days. It seems everyone has had this idea except me .

The white on the launcher is excellent, especially when considering it comes from a black undercoat.

The base as we all know is superb.

In conclusion, you make me love and hate you equally, lol

The two bits that make me happy were the impact bumps on the back of the wall ... subtle but they feel right and on the front of the wall there is a a gathering of detritus in the corner between the wall panel and the post. I was looking for a realistic feel and they did it for me

I still have the same platitude as everyone else...these are amazing and inspirational! the more I see the more I want to emmulate your attention to detail! i have already ordered a few bits and things to ransack for my attempts later on this year! so plase keep me inspired and keep doing more work please!

Here is a current group shot ..



If you want to see closer there is a MUCH larger version here!

Not the best composition or lighting I could manage but at least it shows the work

AMAZING! JUST F#@K'N AMAZING!!! Brother Argos I can't wait to see more!!

Are you just using chipping to highlight the black?

Some areas are shaded first .. and then highlighting applied .. but primarily in areas where the armour would be likely to be chipped by contact with other things.

On mister Missile Launcher, shouldn't there be some debris in front of the wall? If the bullets didnt go through, then there should be bullets and metal bits there, along with whatever rust would get knocked loose. Just a though, they look great regardless.

I had a long think about that ... and actually none of the bullets penetrated (a look on the other side confirms this) ... most would be squashed and probably embedded in the steel plate/wall.

Thats why I did the dark mark in the centre of each bullet mark ... the rust would be blasted off as the bullet hit, as small particles and would most probably settle in a radius around the area, none of it large enough to see.

It was a good day today, I got the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle I have been working on for the last 15yrs. In that time I have often photographed miniatures, but it has always been a casual thing, I never had the quality of image I desired. I have slowly improved my camera till it did what I wanted, never the best as they cost a lot of money, but I have a reasonable camera for taking pictures of my miniatures. My wife has a better camera than mine in most peoples perceptions, it has 10 megapixels to my 5 megapixels, almost the same optical zoom and a slew of options for taking pictures on the fly and getting a good shot. What mine has that makes it work for me is a power socket so I can power it externally from a wall socket, therefore it never needs charging. It has a good macro option with a x5 optical zoom and finally I got a wireless card for it, so that when I take pictures they magically appear in my Pictures folder sorted by date for me.

So a camera I can leave on all the time, that transmits the pictures to my computer automatically and has a good macro ability is what I have, its a Casio Exilim Pro Ex-P505 for those interested (a bit old now). However one of the important parts about taking decent pictures is the lighting and in that area I lacked significantly for a while till recently I discovered a supplier of cheap photo studio lamps! They are a bit pricey at £30 ($45) each, but come with a very good 135w (light output not electrical drain) set of daylight bulbs. Over the last 3 months I have been buying one a month and the last arrived today, so I got to setup my "Studio"!

Here you can see the setup for yourselves: -



My Camera is mounted on a small Slik Mini tripod, the lamps surround the area and I do not need a light tent as I have diffusors that cover the bulbs (being fluorescent they are not that hot). There is a "Lazy Susan" turntable in the middle with some white plasticard stuck to it. I have marked the centre of the plasticard/turntable so I know where to put figures and it is aligned with my camera on the tripod. Behind the turntable and stuck to the wall is a sheet of plasticard to give a decent white backdrop. Luckily it in a position which is semi permanent, the only thing I would need to use there is the book scanner its sitting on top of, which to be honest is used rarely in these days of black library publishing electronically.

Here is a close up view showing what I see when I am taking a picture, Note I use the grid setting on my camera for alignment on my shots and have a Histogram display showing the light range so I could in the past try and adjust for poor lighting. The diffusors covering the lamps help to distribute the light evenly over the area and reduce bright reflections, my wife thinks they look like small shower caps <sigh>



The bulbs are an odd umbrella shape which you can see in the two pictures below: -

From the side:


They throw out a huge amount of light, approximately 405w into a tiny space and have the significant advantage of being a constant colour, unlike before where I had a mix of incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs and fluorescent. With that degree of diffused light, you can get a decent bright well lit photo without too much photoshop work being done after!

From on top:


Its taken me a while to get the components I wanted, but I am quite happy with the result.

You will get to see some of the results yourself in my next major post ... which will be a Green stuff / sculpting post

Glad your set up is finally coming together. I think its important for those younger dakkites to remember getting all this stuff does take time as you've pointed out.

Lennysmash wrote:Glad your set up is finally coming together. I think its important for those younger dakkites to remember getting all this stuff does take time as you've pointed out.

And money. Mustn't forget the money.

Now that I know what I am doing, I think I could get the lighting down to around £60 for all three lamps, which makes the cost more manageable.

Ikea Tercial Lamps : £8.16
Rocwing 135w Bulbs : £9.65
Rocwing 27cm diffuser : 1.89

Total : 19.70

3 x Total = 59.10

Rocwing can be found on

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Rocwing

I can recommend their service and delivery

Awesome, thanks!

Arakasi checking in. I *really* need to check out more SM blogs with quality like this lurking around. Love the attention to detail, especially the bases. Colour me inspired

this is really great! that missile launcher guy really kills it, i would love to see an army at the level of that model!

Hey BrotherArgos

It would make my month if you'd start back up Sorry for revival

Im really disapointed now. Please dont thread-necro BoA, its just annoying.

Sorreh, just wanted him to know we miss him D:

A PM would've sufficed.

Yea, I'm sorry I'll know better next time.

WOW!

Inspiring stuff.

Not only are you gifted in modeling and painting you also write up a very detailed blog, packed with all sorts of inspiration.

Kudos.

EDIT: Sorry for the thread Necro, saw the last posted date but not content and thought it wasn't that long ago :(

how do you do your amazing looking lenses??

Wow, thats not even close.

Thread is being locked due to thread necromancy.